Not back to school again!

Yet another September and our second year of  'proper' home education.  This past year has been a year when Tilda has learned to read fluently and gain a love of Fairy Magic books. She is also keen on the Mr Men and has read the entire library. We regularly trawl the charity shops on the search for more fairy books. We have played with Moshi Monsters, spent hours on their website and pouring over the magazines. We have painted, sewed and eaten lots of blackberries and elderberries (Winnie's favourite).
We have gone car-free - I'd like to say it's for altruistic, planet-saving reasons, but really, our car was a big waste of money for what we used it for. We are now hiring a car for one weekend every month or so and to get our money's worth will actually have a day out - so we are hoping to put our National Trust membership to better use this year.
Winnie is no longer allergic to dairy - although soya and strawberries still upset her and we've yet to try egg. What this means is that I can now eat Dairy Milk, which is fantastic (although not so great for the waistline).
The absolute best thing to have happened this summer though is that we were given a piano! I am so incredibly chuffed with it and am quite pleased with the progress I am making on it. Now that I am a grown-up (supposedly) I have the attention span to practice. Matilda couldn't be any less interested I think, but Winnie loves it and is quite deliberate with her playing - high to low and vice versa, rather than just mashing it. I think it may be something she will take up properly in the years to come.

Here are some pics from the last week. We had a lovely paddle in the river, went to Conkers, to play in West Park (sooooo quiet and wonderful now the schools are back) and a Not-back-to-school Picnic at Highfields. Tomorrow it is off to Slingmeet, then a birthday party on Friday - everything seems very hectic this week!

March so far

We've been in an inflatable planetarium, been to the zoo, fed sheep down on the farm. We've read a lot, made a heck of a large amount of cookies, sewn up dollies, crocheted eggs, started knitting a bag, finished a hat, started had lots of B12 injections, made stripey daffodils, cardboard box castles, learnt how to subtract big numbers, made princess hats, had pneumonia/pleurisy/collapsed lung, waited for a baby (still waiting) bought a tenor recorder, done Maths Whizz, finished Reading Eggs and lots of other things I'll have forgotten about.   A few pics;

 

and Winnie's favourite videos;

 

Foxes? Pah! Who's scared? "Not I" said the cat.

Today was another BEAUTIFUL  day here. Cold, crisp. sunny and wonderful. So we went for a wander. We came across Kitty our elder cat, on the other side of the river and she seemed keen to lead an expedition, so we followed her! She wanted us to go sit on the railway track with her, but I had to draw a line somewhere! We went up along the old railway embankment where we saw three trains - one of which was pulling 35 containers of ballast! There were lots of trainspotters on the bridge which I was going to be sarcastic about, but then Steve looked at the photo I took of the train and recognised it as one he had been in to do measurements in the driver's cab!  He can also tell what class engine is running by the noise it makes. Ahem...  :D
Anyway, once off the embankment we walked along the side of it towards Asda. Kitty was still with us. We saw a fox sunbathing at the top and I was a bit worried about the cat - until she charged at the fox, that is! That cat knows no fear - very proud of her - the fox scarpered!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to start the day- mmmmmm Johnny Depp! Grampsy came over this afternoon and Tilda did some of her 'telling the time' book with him. We went to Asda where she picked up a Rapunzel book and had it read by the checkouts! This evening she made a rocket from paper and a LOT of sellotape, inspired by the rockets made at yesterday's fun club. They made aeroplanes, helicopters and did lots of running about. Winnie had a good time playing with the kitchen!
On Tuesday, Steve is going to take Tilda to the BBC Stargazing LIVE event at Wollaton Hall. Depending on if I can get Winnie to sleep in the daytime, we might tag along!
Tomorrow is the Nottingham Slingmeet, followed by McDonalds and a trip to Waterstones - rah!

Round and round we go.....

Today I have made myself dizzy by demonstrating the earth's orbit. To fully understand how day and night works, we made Austrailia my bottom and Matilda was the sun. Winnie was being a rogue asteroid belt. We've learnt loads about the planets and started talking about lunar cycles; umbras / penumbras etc.
Also did a spot of face painting and Winnie has taken to crocheting her dinner!

To Infinity and Beyond!

I have stuck a giant piece of navy fabric to our project wall as a background to our 'Space Mission'. We are going to do something involving the solar system and possibly have an astronaut and some aliens thrown in for good measure. Watch this space!

 

 Had a busy old few days... Friday was cake day but unfortunately Katherine was poorly, so I had to eat the refridgerator cake I made specially for Devena. Terrible shame! On Friday night Matilda decided that puking was the way forward - despite not really being ill, but we had to cancel going to the Nut Hut for Harri's birthday as she really wasn't awake enough! We went round to Nyree''s for birthday cake and slightly less energetic play in the afternoon though!

Today saw us go to the Nut Hut to appease the birthday boy and they had a fab time! Winnie completely knackered herself in climbing and showed pretty much no fear. I had fun on the slide!

It's Official!

We are now officially Home Educators! Today is the first day of term after Matilda's fifth birthday, so we celebrated with a trip to the library. I felt ever so slightly naughty too! It feels fun to be going against the norm.
The day started with some Kindle reading in bed - she has just started on The Twits by Roald Dahl. There aren't many words she gets stuck on now and she gets the general gist of most things.

 

Then off to the library to find some books about Space. We are planning a field trip to the National Space Centre next month with her friends so have gone to get some inspiration for artwork and projects. 

 

Winnie seemed unkeen on the library's organisation and seemed intent on relocating the baby books to the teenage fiction section.

 

 

I really rather cunningly managed to forget my keys, so we spent the afternoon at Nyree's, eating homemade chips. For which we are truely thankful!